MUZAFFARABAD: The head of the Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP), Sardar Khalid Ibrahim, has locked horns with the Election Commission over the deletion of his name from the voters list of his native area in Poonch district.

His name was allegedly removed by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) during the verification of electoral rolls, because his computerised national identity card (CNIC) showed both his permanent and temporary address in the federal capital.

Mr Ibrahim is the son of AJK’s founder president Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, who hailed from Horna Mera village in Poonch district. Though Mr Ibrahim lives in Islamabad, he, however, has contested seven previous elections from his native area, of which he had won four.

In February this year, the AJK Legislative Assembly had approved amendments in AJK Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1970, on the recommendations of a parliamentary committee, which had held deliberations on electoral reforms for over seven months.

The amendments provided that a person would be entered in the voters’ list of the area of his permanent residence, mentioned in the CNIC.

However, it also provided that a person could also be enrolled at the place of his temporary residence, after obtaining a certificate from the registration officer concerned that he had not enrolled himself at the place of his permanent residence.

According to official sources, enumerators in Poonch district had enrolled Mr Ibrahim and his family members in the lists of Horna Mera village. However, when the lists were sent to Nadra for verification, these names were struck off, because Horna Mera village did not figure in their permanent or temporary addresses. Instead their Islamabad address was mentioned in both columns.

“I have contested all previous elections and my identity card had no mention of my address in AJK,” Mr Ibrahim said in a statement, adding, no name could be removed from electoral rolls on the basis of CNIC, which was a Pakistani document.

He said he had already submitted an application for inclusion of his name in the voters list.

Without naming Mr Ibrahim, a spokesman for the AJK Election Commission clarified on Tuesday that the eligibility of a voter was determined by the recently amended law, which could only be altered by the legislature and not the CEC.

“Under that law, the primary condition for enrolment as voters for all Kashmiris, whether living in AJK or anywhere in Pakistan, is permanent or temporary address mentioned in the CNIC,” the spokesman said.

“If the CEC deems it appropriate, he can order enrolment of a vote before the announcement of election schedule. But afterwards even he cannot enter any vote,” he added.

The spokesman also recalled that before the launch of the process for preparation of new voter lists, all these issues were discussed in detail in the light of the new legislation with top office bearers of all political parties.

Meanwhile, sources close to Mr Ibrahim said his legal team was contemplating challenging exclusion of his name in the AJK High Court, after printing of final lists.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2016